Delta Naturalists Society

18 eyeballs and 18 ears (of various degrees of acuity) did their best to find the birds hiding in Queen Elizabeth Park on this warm sunny day – but it was a challenge. It was probably half-and-half between eyeballs and ears with some help for the latter from Merlin. Those doing the searching were Brian and Louise, Colin and Stephanie, Warren and Lynne, Margaret, Marion and Glen. Sorry, once again we forget to take a group photo!

We vainly scoured flowering trees and shrubs for some huge outfall of Warblers, but were limited to mostly Yellow-rumped, a cluster of Wilson’s, a glimpse of an Orange-crowned and the sounds of the Black-throated Gray. W e did get some looks at a pair of Bewick’s Wrens, possibly feeding young. And we saw and heard the Anna’s Hummingbird doing its honking screech and J-dive to impress the ladies. There were very few Finches except the Goldfinch which was fairly common.

The two quarries were almost empty of birds of any sort, so we spent rather more time looking at the flower displays and even some time appreciating the bugs which were more plentiful than the birds. The best spot for birding turned out to be the pond where we saw finches, warblers and a possible flycatcher in the surrounding trees, and then a few Wilson’s Warblers flitting back and forth across the pond hawking for their lunch and posing for the photogs. The Barred Owl was perched in the same area it is usually found, but resting in a dark space, and we did not disturb it.

At the end, we helped Brian put together a complete list of what we had seen and heard, and that is attached below. We had 31 species, and that’s not too bad for what seemed a day on which the birds stayed deep in the cool bushes.

Glen Bodie

Photos on Flickr

Canada Goose  3ingl
Gadwall  2
Mallard  8
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  1
Eurasian Collared-Dove  2
Anna’s Hummingbird  7
Glaucous-winged Gull  4
Bald Eagle  2
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Barred Owl  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  3
American Crow  4
Common Raven  1
Black-capped Chickadee  6
Bushtit  6
Golden-crowned Kinglet  3
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
Bewick’s Wren  3
American Robin  4
House Finch  3
American Goldfinch  13
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)  3
White-crowned Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  4
Spotted Towhee  5
Orange-crowned Warbler  4
Yellow-rumped Warbler  18
Black-throated Gray Warbler  2
Wilson’s Warbler  6
Black-headed Grosbeak  1